Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Marrow (Zucchini) and Ginger Jam

Marrows are known by many different names. They are basically overgrown courgettes, although no doubt someone will correct me...

These particular marrows started out as courgettes/zucchini, but when they become overgrown they don't make great eating as a vegetable. Luckily, they do lend themselves to jam making. They are great for adding to ginger jam to bulk it out, and with the right recipe, they are barely detectable as a vegetable. The jam might just as well be called Ginger Jam.

Before beginning, wash the jars and lids thoroughly in warm soapy water and then rinse in hot water. Place them on a baking tray in the oven and set the oven to 100°C. By the time the jam is ready to pot the jars will be sterilised.

Using a grater, remove the zest from all the lemon and place in preserving pan. Juice the lemons. Place the lemon shells and pith, and any pips into a muslin bag.

Add the chopped marrow to the preserving pan with 2 tbsp of the lemon juice. Retain the remaining juice for later.

Cook the marrow and lemon juice over a medium heat, stirring all the time, until the pieces are turning translucent and soft. Turn up the heat and boil away any juices and then stir in the rest of the juice, the ginger, the sugar and the muslin bag containing the remaining parts of the lemons. Stir all the time untils the sugar dissolves.

Place a plate in the fridge (this will be used later to test for the setting point).

Bring to the boil, and then simmer for about 30 mins or until the marrow has softened completely and the jam has reached setting point. To test this, spoon a little of the jam onto the cooled plate. Wait 30 seconds or so, and then push it with your finger. If wrinkles form on the surface, the jam is ready.

Pour the jam into the warm jars, and immediately cover with a circle of waxed paper which has been cut to fit the whole surface of the jam, and close the lid. Closing the lid while the jam is warm helps to preserve it.

25 comments:

Bravo on another creative way to use over-sized zucchini! I've never heard it called marrow (but I'm in the U.S. so that's no surprise, eh?). I love ginger and would devour this jam. I think bulking it up with zucchini, which takes on the flavor of whatever it's cooked with, is an excellent idea. Many thanks for the recipe.

Ah, Marrows, the bane of my life when I was a kid. My mother used to serve up these enormous, watery monstrosities for dinner with rice and other things stuffed inside. Perfectly horrid, but I have had a marrow and ginger jam before and in all fairness, considering it comes from the nasty marrow, it's pretty darn good :D Nice post :)

Hello Ruth, Thank you for your visit to my blog and leaving a nice comment. I hope you visit again soon, I do look forward.I love ginger therefore, I would very much like this jam. Lovely. Blessings, Catherine

I think this is a great combination. I pickle zucchini, so I see no reason it can't be used in a jam or jelly. Your jars look gorgeous and I can guess how good this jam would be spread on a muffin. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

I made my first jam/preserve ever a few weeks ago and I couldn't believe how easy/successful it was! This looks wonderful. I have so many courgettes and accidental marrows at the moment so I'll need to remember this one.

Ah, your jam looks properly set. I made some last year but couldn't find any jam sugar so just hoped the lemons would work - they didn't. I still have several jars of marrow ginger sauce! It is a great way of using up overgrown courgettes though.

I spotted your blog mentioned, last week, when flicking through a copy of the Julian Graves magazine. I did a double take - well done.

Joanna - that's great. It really is a good recipe, you just need to be sure to boil it up long enough. The first time I made it it didn't set properly and I ended up emptying the jars back into the jam pan and boiling it up again!